Kumar Suvarna Chandrak

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Kumar Suvarna Chandrak, also known as the Kumar Gold Medal, is a Gujarati literary award given by the Kumar Trust of Ahmedabad and the Hiraben Foundation of Mumbai, India. It has been awarded annually since 1944 to a Gujarati author for their contributions to the Kumar magazine published by the Kumar Trust. The award used to be called Kumar Chandrak and was renamed Kumar Suvarna Chandrak in 2003.

History and purpose:
- The award was established in 1944 by Yashwant Pandya, a writer associated with Kumar, to honor Gujarati literature.
- It is awarded to a Gujarati writer for their literary work published in Kumar magazine.
- Early selection committees included Balwantray Thakore, Vishnuprasad Trivedi, and Sundaram; later Ramnarayan V. Pathak and Anantrai Raval were part of the process.
- From 1983 to 2002 there was no formal declaration of the award, and it was revived in 2003.
- In 2003, the award’s name was changed from Kumar Chandrak to Kumar Suvarna Chandrak.

Recipients:
- A total of 53 writers have received the award since 1944.
- The first winner was Hariprasad Desai in 1944.
- The list includes many prominent Gujarati writers over the years.
- The latest listed recipient is Bharat Dave in 2016 (with some sources noting 2015 as the final year).